of Lollies, Love, Labels, Laughter, Lessons, Life, and being the Lulu…

of Tears and Tantrum

It all started with an accident, he knocked down a girl’s water bottle by accident and the water spilled all over the floor. The students started to jeer and make ‘funny’ comments, asking him to clean up the mess. He was so furious that he was shouting back at them. Immediately I rebuked the rest of the class and stopped them from adding oil into the situation, kindly asked the boy to take the cloth to dry up the water. He quietly obliged, but some other boys just would not stop their teasing. I did not let them get away and sternly rebuked them, asked them to focus on their summary writing.

Then, I told the boy he had done enough and gave him the toilet pass to wash his hands. But he came back with tears and a red nose. The whole class became solemn as they all knew he was crying. I walked towards him, and gently told him that I knew it was an accident, and that I was thankful he helped clean up the mess; then I gave him my tissue.

After that, this other girl suddenly threw her temper at the boy sitting beside her. I was not going to let it pass just like that. Without naming anyone, I told the whole class firmly that I do not like seeing people throwing tantrums in front of me as if I am not there. Once again the class became solemn. But then again, many of them were so focused on their summary because I gave them a time limit and a ‘secret mission’ which if achieved, they would be awarded extra points. Most of them did so well in their summary, which gave me a big sigh of relief.

After that class, I went into three classes of relief. It was tiring but it’s not like we could complain about it.

But then, something made my day: The girl who threw her temper came to see me in the staff room, and apologised for her actions. I smiled at her and told her it’s alright, just don’t do that again.